Of Mice and Men in Pop Culture

Of Mice and Men is a novel written by Nobel prize winner John Steinbeck, it was published in 1937 and has been adapted to film and other media outlets numerous times. The first time is was turned into a film was two years after the book was originally published in 1939 with great success nominated for four Oscars. In 1981 it was made into a TV movie and did not receive the same amount of success as the previous adapted version. The book was also made into a theater production in November of 1937 it ran for 207 performances it was chosen as Best Play in 1938 by the New York Drama Critics' Circle. In 1939 the production was moved to Los Angeles. The play was later revived in a 1974 Broadway production in the Brooks Atkinson Theater. The book Of Mice and Men had a large part in pop culture here are some examples

In Futurama the episode Love and Rocket Bender plays with the ship's control panel. The ship then says: "Stop it! You're mussing up my trajectory!" Like Curley's Wife in the novel.

Theatrical cartoon shorts of the 1940s and 1950s, particularly the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons released by Warner Bros., are particularly awash with Of Mice and Men parodies. The Of Mice and Men reference most often in the form of one character asking another, à la, Lennie, "which way did he go, George; which way did he go?"

Tex Avery, who worked as a director on Warner-released cartoons during the 1930s and early 1940s, started the trend with Of Fox and Hounds (1940). The formula was so successful that it was utilized again and again in subsequent shorts

In the King of the Hill episode "Of Mice and Little Green Men," Bobby and Hank act in a stage production of Of Mice and Men. Also, in the episode "serPUNt," Bobby's pet snake goes down a sewer causing a panic. The snake is killed, but Hank tells his son Bobby that they let it loose on a farm. At the end of the episode, Bobby asks Hank to "tell me about the farm," in the same manner that Lennie asked George.
The animated series American Dad! has an episode "Of Ice and Men".

In the SpongeBob episode, "Sleepy Time," a book is briefly shown labeled Of Snails and Men.

In The Weekenders, the popular cartoon series, Carver makes a reference to Of Mice and Men when he is trying to get over his fear of going on air for a radio show.

In the Stephen King serial novel The Green Mile, John Coffey (played by Michael Clarke Duncan in the 1999 film) is similar to Lennie in that he is large, unintelligent, and innocent at heart. In both stories, mice fall into their care at some point.

In the popular webcomic Penny Arcade there is a strip entitled; "Of Dice and Men".

In Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel, Casino Royale, one of Le Chiffre's two guards is described as "rather like Lennie from Of Mice and Men"